


valentine's day plans

by fuckeliasbouchard



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Nonbinary Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, One Shot, Other, Set in Episodes 159-160 | Scottish Safehouse Period (The Magnus Archives), Spoilers up to Season 4, They/Them Pronouns for Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29426646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuckeliasbouchard/pseuds/fuckeliasbouchard
Summary: content warnings:- swearing- mentioned character death
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	valentine's day plans

**Author's Note:**

> content warnings:  
> \- swearing  
> \- mentioned character death

They woke up to the feeling of sunlight filling the small bedroom, just like they did every morning. Jon lay there, eyes closed, for a few seconds before carefully extracting themself from the tangle of bedsheets and blankets and Martin. They sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember the dream they had last night - something to do with teeth, lots of them. The vivid nightmares had subsided since moving to Scotland, but what replaced them were strange, blurry dreams that were hard to remember but equally hard to forget. The dreams left Jon with a sense of wanting to know more, but the Eye gave them no hints as to what they meant. It was probably nothing, and the last thing Jon wanted to do was strengthen their connection with the Eye at the moment.

They shuffled towards the curtains and opened them. It was going to be an overcast day - the sky was filled with dark grey clouds that almost blended in with the foggy landscape. Jon reached for their phone on the windowsill to check the date. Staying in the safehouse for more than a month with minimum human contact meant that the days tended to blur into each other, so it became a habit to check first thing in the morning what date it was. It was a sort of comfort, to be able to know something as simple as that without it changing or turning against them. Consistency was turning out to be a very good thing.

The date was the 14th.

Wait.

The date was February 14th. 

Jon sighed and smiled a little, and looked over at the bed where Martin was just waking up. “Good morning,” they said with a grin. “Sorry I woke you at the terrible hour of ”- they checked their phone again - “seven o’clock.”

There was a muffled noise from the bed that sounded a lot like “It's cold without you”. 

“I'll go put the kettle on, then.” They walked into the kitchen, flicked on the lights and started filling up the kettle. 

So. It was Valentine's Day, today. Jon wondered what they would usually be doing on this day in the Institute. Probably trying to avoid Tim; he was always doing something stupid that day. One year he ‘decorated’ the archives, more notably Jon's desk, with paper heart confetti, another year in Research he gave everyone heart-shaped helium balloons which accidentally got stuck on the ceiling of the top of the staircase. 

They weren't going to think about Tim, or Sasha, no, it would only make them more sad. And this was meant to be a happy holiday, right? 

By this time, the tea was ready and Jon grabbed the packet of digestives as well as the mugs to take into the bedroom, concentrating very hard so they didn't spill any on the carpet. They pushed open the door to see Martin sat up in bed, grinning at his partner. 

“Happy Valentine's Day,” he said as Jon carefully made their way onto the bed again, giving Martin the mug of tea with milk in.

“Heh. Yes,” Jon replied. “Would...would you like to do something to celebrate it?”

“Maybe.” Martin was still grinning.

“You’ve already got something planned, haven’t you.”

“Maybe.” 

“Yes you have,” Jon said, poking their boyfriend in the face. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing, really… It’s just that we’re staying in the countryside and… we haven’t had a picnic yet.”

“Martin.” Jon was struggling not to laugh at this point. “It’s the middle of fucking February. We’re in Scotland. And you want to have a picnic.”

“Well, when you phrase it like that, it does sound a bit weird.”

“It’s crazy.  _ You’re  _ crazy.”

“Okay, fine, do you have any other ideas? What would  _ you _ like to do?”

Jon thought about this a long time. After a minute’s silence, they spoke. “I’m not particularly sure. I guess I’ve never really celebrated this whole thing before.”

“Really? Not even when you were dating Georgie?”

“We weren’t really  _ dating _ , it was more of a very strong platonic thing going on. Georgie was never really that into romance as a concept.”

“Ah, so Valentine’s Day was off the table.”

Jon laughed. “I mean, we did enjoy buying chocolate boxes half-price at the co-op.”

“...So, what you’re saying is, you’ve never celebrated today? Like, at all?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, I am going to change that, Jonathan Sims! It will now be my personal duty, my  _ mission _ to make sure you have the best Valentine’s Day ever.”

“With a picnic? In winter?”

“Obviously.” Martin rested his head on their shoulder and they both stayed there for a while, smiling about what the day might bring.

***

They were in the kitchen now, rummaging through the cupboards to find anything to put in the picnic, which apparently was definitely happening now. 

“What exactly goes into a picnic?” Jon asked, looking through the tins on the top shelf. 

“Are you telling me that you've never had a picnic before?” Martin looked at his partner, trying to figure out if they were joking or not. 

“Well, there’s a lot of options, and I’m terrible at choosing,” they said. 

“Okay, let's do something simple, then,” Martin replied, opening the fridge. “Sandwiches. Sandwiches are good.” He took out some cheddar and Branston pickle. 

Jon glanced out the window. The sky was slowly becoming stormier, and even the sheep in the next field looked sad, or at least weary of what was to come. “Are we sure that we want to go out on a day like this?” Jon nudged their partner to look out the window.

“What's the worst that could happen?” Martin was now wrapping the sandwiches in tin foil. 

“We accidentally start the apocalypse.”

“Yeah, but that's not going to happen, Jon.”

“You don’t know that.” 

“What  _ could _ happen is we get a bit wet, and the food gets a bit wet, but that's okay. I mean, we've got a fire and towels and blankets at home to dry off if we need it.”

Jon looked at Martin and smirked. “And body warmth.”

“Yeah, and that too, but I swear to god, Jon, if you try and give me a hug while your clothes are soaked like you did last week, I am going to literally kill you!”

Jon started packing everything into a rucksack. “But you couldn't do that, could you.”

“What? Kill you?”

“Yeah. You like me too much to do that.” Martin gave a shrug at that comment. “Plus,” they said with a fake gasp, “imagine killing your own boss! I'm sure the true crime channels would love that.”

“I'd kill him for you.”

“Ah. How romantic.” Jon ruffled Martin's hair and then went to go get their coats. 

***

The walk to the top of the hill was not exactly hard, but it was muddy and foggy and altogether pretty dismal. There was no one else around, except for the occasional experienced hiker marching with their dog just behind. Jon was definitely regretting not bringing an umbrella, because above them the leaves of the trees were steadily dripping, even though it wasn't raining. 

At the top, Jon found a bench that was very wet, but it had an impressive view of rolling hills which were surrounded by fog. If you looked hard enough, you could see tiny dark pinpricks that were people walking as well. They laid a blanket over the bench in an effort to have a dry-ish picnic. Jon realised that they were shivering. It had been cold to the point of freezing walking up the hill, but now they had stopped moving, and the chill had rushed in. “I’m colllddd,” they complained to Martin, who wrapped his (rather wet) arms around them.

“Aren’t you wearing one of my jumpers?” he asked.

“ _ Our _ jumpers,” Jon corrected, laughing into Martin’s warmth.

“Nope, you’re still definitely stealing mine.” He unzipped the rucksack, took out the slightly flattened sandwiches and gave one to Jon. “So? What do you think?”

“It’s cold.”

“Well, yeah, but I’m talking about Valentine’s Day. Would you say that it’s living up to your expectations?”

“Yes.” 

“There’s a but, isn’t there.”

“But it’s freezing, Martin,” Jon exclaimed. “And this is lovely and all but I would rather spend my Valentine’s Day indoors with heating.”

“Yeah, alright, I get the memo,” Martin smiled as he started to pack up everything again.

“But thank you, though.” Jon squeezed his hand and they began to get up from the bench. “I’ll make sure that this is the best Valentine’s Day  _ you _ get to experience.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it already is.”

“You,” Jon said, pointing at Martin, “are the cheesiest person to exist.”

“And you’re the grumpiest.”

They walked down the hill, snickering and holding hands.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this really quickly for valentines day so uhhh yeah  
> but i hope you enjoyed reading it :3  
> also im sorry there wasn't a summary i really couldn't think of anything to write


End file.
